live from london, this is bbc news. prime minister sir keir starmer says that fixing what he called a broken welfare system is a moral imperative, after his government's recent u-turn. fixing it is a moral imperative, but we need to do it in a labour way, conference. and we will. we have a report from the iranian capital, where a major state funeral has taken place honouring military commanders and nuclear scientists killed by israel during its 12-day war. health alerts and fears of wildfires. much of southern europe is braced for a heatwave, with temperatures forecast to reach more than 40 degrees.

sir keir starmer says there is a "moral imperative" to change the welfare system, despite watering down his initial plans to try to see off a backbench rebellion. more than 120 labour mps had signalled their intention to vote against the proposals in the commons this week. downing street offered significant concessions, meaning that new claimants - not existing ones - would face stricter checks to decide whether they could claim disability benefits. our political correspondent, harry farley, has more. the lights on the dashboard aren't quite flashing red, but the warning signs are still there for the prime minister. in a visit to mark armed forces day, sir keir starmer's main worry is the battle he faces at home to get his benefits bill passed. we've listened to colleagues, we've had engagement. i want to get this right and i want to bring people with us and therefore we've made adjustments. and this package now, i think, is a good package. it delivers the change

that we need and allows us now to move forward with a package which i think is right. only new claimants will face cuts to universal credit and tougher criteria to claim pip, but there will be a review on what that should be, and a £1 billion support plan to help people into work, due in 2029, will be brought forward. some rebels have said they will now support the plans and government ministers are confident they have the numbers for the vote next week. but charities argue it will create a two-tier system, based on when a disability began, not on its severity. and many labour mps are still angry. this is ultimately still a cost-cutting measure and that means that, however they try and co-produce the system for these new people moving forwards, we're going to be taking billions of pounds out of the pockets of people with high levels of vulnerability when there are better alternatives on the table. i don't think it's inconceivable we get back up to numbers which would potentially result in the bill being killed. i think there have been lessons

learned and i'm sure that they will continue to be learnt over the weekend. it would not be right for me to not do anything just to spare the prime minister an inconvenience that had to be raised, and we did it in the, we did it as quietly and professionally as we could. the conservatives say they'll support it on three unlikely conditions. that he has to reduce the welfare budget, that he has to make sure people get into work. at the moment, the bill doesn't do that. the u-turn makes it even worse. and they have to commit to not having more tax rises. but even if the government does pass these watered down reforms, they now need to find the money the original version was due to save. that makes tax rises in autumn's budget even more likely. harry farley, bbc news in westminster. speaking to the welsh labour conference this morning, the prime minister said he was committed to making changes.

we cannot take away the safety net that vulnerable people rely on, and we won't. but we also cannot let it become a snare for those who can and want to work. everyone agrees that our welfare system is broken, failing people everyday. a generation of young people written off for good. and the costs spiralling out of control. fixing it as a moral imperative but we need to do it in a labour way, conference, and we will. protecting those who need it most. investing millions in mental health support. reforming our nhs so people are not stuck on waiting lists for years on end. building council homes for people to build their lives around. programmes and good jobs to get people back into work, and the stronger rights that workers deserve. more opportunities, more homes, better support - that is the labour way. applause.

earlier i spoke to our political correspondent charlotte wright. and i think ministers think that they have got the numbers. they think they can quell this rebellion on tuesday. they think these concessions that they've put forward are enough. but that said, there are a number of backbench mps who are still very unhappy. they're unhappy with the way number ten have handled this and they're unhappy with the concessions themselves. we've also heard from the charity mind who say that these concessions create a two-tier system. it's something that the labour-affiliated trade union unite agree with. they've come out today and said that it's divisive and sinister, these concessions. so there are concerns that this creates a two-tier system. it's difficult to tell at the moment how many backbench labour mps agree with that, and how many of them are happy with the concessions that the government has made. that's because there are a number of different groups within labour who have been part of the rebellion. there's not one big

overall leader of them, if that makes sense, so it's tricky to know at the moment. we'll find out in the coming days, but certainly there will be a lot of phone calls between ministers and backbenchers between now and tuesday. and something else people are going to want to know is how this is going to be paid for. harry mentioned the possibility of tax increases. is that likely to be on the table? well, the government hasn't ruled it out. so i think it is looking increasingly likely at the moment or freezing tax thresholds. the government could also look at cutting other budgets as well. but of course, this is a saving that the chancellor had predicated her spending plans on. and the spending review was based on making £5 billion worth of savings, which she now won't be able to make. she'll make less than half of that. so there is a black hole in the budget. she's going to need to find the money somewhere. and it does look increasingly likely that, in the autumn budget, when that comes, there will be tax rises. huge crowds in the iranian capital tehran have

attended a state funeral to honour the senior military commanders and leading nuclear scientists killed by israel earlier this month. it comes as president trump warned he would consider bombing iran again, if he felt it was necessary. he said he would like the international atomic energy agency to examine the damage caused by the american attack against iranian nuclear sites last weekend. our world news correspondent joe inwood reports. they had called on iranians to come to the streets to put on a show of unity after a fortnight that had left the country battered as much of its military and scientific leadership dead. amongst them, mohammad bagheri, chief of staff for around's armed forces, on the left. he died in israel's opening attacks along

with his wife and daughter. also killed on the same night, the commander-in-chief of the islamic revolutionary guard, and the former head of the atomic organisation of iran. this country's leadership has claimed a victory in its 12 day war, despite the evidence to the contrary. those who came out today, raging supporters, shared the defiance. translation: we will avenge the blood of our martyrs, we will deprive them of sleep and one day we will definitely avenge the blood of our loved ones. no negotiation or surrender, no compromise. any compromise he is a betrayal to the revolution and the blood of the martyrs. also amongst the crowds was the grandson of around's first supreme leader, i toy camellia. where here to show the enemy we are all united and well not abandon the country or leave our country. at previous funerals, the supreme leader, now ali khamenei, had spoken,

that did not happen this time. while the focus of israel's attacks by military and scientific, hundreds of ordinary iranians were also killed. translation: i don't know why israel attacked here, to just a residential building, all the floors are either private homes or small office space. many iranians do not support their government but that does not mean they wanted to see their country bombed. iran has been left reeling by the speed and effectiveness of israel's attacks. the toll it took on the country's leadership paused today on full display. our chief international correspondent lyse doucet is in tehran. she is being allowed to report from tehran on condition that none of her coverage is used on the bbc's persian service, which broadcasts to the people of iran. this law from the authorities applies to all international media agencies operating in iran. lyse has been covering today's ceremony. a defining moment for the islamic republic of iran.

mourning fills the streets, but also anger and defiance. these are the foot soldiers of the revolution, the islamic order's most loyal supporters, chanting, "death to america, death to israel," holding the iranian flag high, waving photographs of some top military commanders and leading nuclear scientists assassinated by israel in the 12-day war. they remain intensely loyal to their leaders at a time when iranians across this country are confronting new dangers and also new questions about their relationship with the wider world and what is the best way forward. an israeli newspaper report saying that soldiers were ordered to shoot at unarmed civilians waiting for food aid in gaza has been strongly rejected by israel's prime minister. the head of the organisation

distributing aid has denied that hundreds of deaths from shootings are linked to its collection points. from jerusalem, lucy williamson sent this report, which includes images you may find distressing. to make gaza's aid more secure, israel told gaza's people to walk through a war zone to get it. translation: this is a death trap for us. this is not aid. this is the road to death. i don't want to eat if i'll be shot at. gunfire. footage from the first days of gaza's new privately-run aid system showed chaos near the distribution sites. screaming. hungry crowds pinned down by gunfire. the un says more than 400 people are reported to have been killed by israeli forces near the site in the first month of operation. abdullah al-najjar was injured near one site last week.

translation: i was going to bring food to my family, to my siblings. we got injured. there was a lot of fire. its food was the taste of blood. translation: i plead with everyone not to go to the aid sites. every day we face the same scenario. martyrs, injuries and numbers that we can't endure. the hospitals cannot process all the injuries they receive. the head of the gaza humanitarian foundation told the bbc his operation was not connected to the hundreds of deaths and accused the un of misinformation. we're not denying that there are casualties in the gaza strip. we're not even denying that there are casualties within proximity to aid distribution sites. what we're saying is 100% of those casualties are being attributed to close proximity to ghf. that is, that is not true. 100% of the casualties are being attributed to the idf, as best as we can tell,

that's also not true. israel's army strongly rejected a local media report that soldiers had been told to fire on unarmed crowds and said incidents were being examined. its prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, said the media accusations were contemptible blood libels and malicious falsehoods designed to defame the idf. after a two-month israeli aid blockade, hunger drives many decisions in gaza. drives crowds to surge towards the promise of food, risking death to stay alive. sirens blare. lucy williamson, bbc news, jerusalem. now it's time for a look at today's sport with sarah.

the british and irish lions have got off to a winning start on australia soil, beating the western force 54-7. the first match on australian soil took place in perth. captain dan sheehan's try got the lions off the mark - and they had a 21-7 lead at the break. henry pollock impressed but did spend time in the sin-bin. tomos williams of wales scored twice. the second half in particular was impressive from andy farrel's side - joe mccarthy one of three players to cross the try line. elliot daly scored two tries. the only negative in a dominant performance was williams going off with a possible hamstring issue. they move to brisnbane next. the under-21s men's euros reach their climax tonight, with defending champions england versus germany in the final. england lost to germany

in the group phase, but have since been impressive in knock-out wins over favourites spain, and the netherlands, so this time they won't fear the germans. england's senior manager, thomas tuchel, who is german, will be in bratislava to watch the final after a 5000-mile round trip. i knew the second half against germany, we collect, the first half it would be fair to say, especially the first 20 minutes, we didn't play well. but the response from half-time until the second half, we see a lot of the players, you have been down to the training sessions and seen the setup, they train at such a high level. it was only a matter of time when it clicked. after the game, i was more than confident that this team had clicked. big news ahead of the women's euros. spanish midfielder aitana bonmati, ballon d'or winner for the last two years, has been hospitalised with viral meningitis less than a week before spain begin their campaign. she missed their 3-1 win over japan in a friendly as spain continued building up to their first group b match against portugal. bonmati shared a picture of herself watching the match from a hospital bed

in an instagram story. her coach said, "she is a very important player for us. we'll wait for her as long as we can." the knock-out stage of the fifa club world cup gets underway later on saturday with the first two fixtures of the round of 16 taking place. it's an all-brazilian affair in the first fixture as palmeiras take on botafoga in philadelphia before chelsea take on benfica in charlotte. the match will see enzo fernandez face his former club since his then british-record move. after a slow start to his chelsea career, the argentine is flourishing and manager enzo maresca expects him to get better. this season's struggle, it will be the beginning to understand how we want to play, but then he is doing fantastic, also in terms of the goal assessed, his contribution this season has been top, and for sure next

season will be even better. lando norris laid down a marker ahead of qualifying prix. norris' best effort was enough to see off mclaren team-mate and championship rival oscar piastri, who holds a 22-point lead in the standings, by 0.118 seconds. max verstappen finished third for red bull, a place clear of charles leclerc. japan's ema kawakami stunned the crowd by winning the bronze medal to become the youngest male medalist in x games history at ten years and nine months. he was already the first to land a 900 at the age of seven and also holds the guinness world record for the most back-side 540 skateboard tricks in one minute, with eight completed. plenty of drama off the track in formule one in austria this weekend, where mercedes team principal toto wolff has admitted he is exploring the possibility of signing four-time world champion max verstappen. earlier in the day, george russell said his contract talks with mercedes have been delayed,

because of the ongoing conversations with verstappen. wolff denies that but says russell should use any scrutiny and speculation taking place off the track to help his performances on it. you know, this pressure, constant pressure, whether you are in the car or outside, you need to cope with that. and george knows that. like any other driver knows it. i feel that when you are being put in a comfort zone, sometimes that is actually more detrimental to performance. and that's all the sport for now. temperatures in the uk could hit 30 degrees centigrade today amid the second amber heat health alert in two weeks, covering several parts of england. it's a similiar story across much of southern europe as a punishing heatwave continues. the heat is spreading

from the iberian peninsula across to the balkans and greece with temperatures topping 40 celsius prompting health warnings and fears of wildfires. in italy there are red alerts for 21 cities including rome, milan and venice. people are being advised to stay indoors between 11am and 6pm. france has been gripped by its 50th national heatwave since 1947 for more than a week now, and four regions in the south of the country have been placed under an orange alert. in spain, emergency medical staff are on stand-by to deal with an expected surge in heatstroke cases, particularly among vulnerable groups such as children, the elderly and people with chronic illnesses. earlier i spoke to our correspondent guy hedgecoe, who is in madrid, about the heatwave concerns across spain. yes, right here in madrid it is in the mid-30s celsius but still rising. we are expecting temperatures to

increase by a few degrees more today, but it is in the south could see 42, 43 celsius. those temperatures, we could see similar temperatures to those in other parts of the country in the south-west and north-east as the weekend continues. this is a heatwave which is expected to last several days. today is just the beginning. talk us through the kind of warnings and advice that authorities are giving the residents there. a lot of the advice is what you would expect to hear in the summer when there are heatwaves, and we have heard it many times before, which is people should remain hydrated, be careful with their health. stay indoors during the hottest times, which tends to be mid-afternoon

here, late afternoon. there is legislation in place, in place for two years, seeking to protect manual workers who work outside from the heat. that means that people, for example, who work in agriculture or construction by law are not supposed to work during the hottest time of day during a heatwave. that should in theory be enforced today. measures like those, and obviously in terms of wildfires, the fire services are on high alert around the country. the new head of nhs england has criticised the health service, claiming that it keeps the public away and patients are seen as an "incovenience" . sir jim mackey made the comments in an interview with the telegraph. our correspondent barry caffrey has the details. some people will be quite shocked by what was said in the interview by sir jim mackey on the front page of the telegraph this morning. he said that the health service had made it really difficult

for patients to get the care that they needed. he said the health service was often deaf to criticism, spent far too much money and, in some cases, operated in a fossilised way - ways of working that had not changed since 1948, since the nhs was founded. he said, and i quote, "it feels like we've built mechanisms to keep the public away because it is an inconvenience", warning that too many patients were left ringing a number that no-one even answers. sir jim warned that the disconnect between nhs services and the public could result in the loss of the public health service altogether. he said the big worry is if we don't grab that and we don't deal with it at pace, we'll lose the population. if we lose the population, we will lose the nhs. now, sir jim ran one of the nhs's most successful hospitals for 20 years and in the interview he said he was driven by the poor experiences of his own family at the expense of the nhs. his dying father suffered

terrible care at the hands of the nhs, and that was back in the 1990s. and he said, since then, far too little has changed. next week, the government will publish its ten-year health plan that promises three major shifts in the way the nhs operates - from analogue to digital, from hospital to community and from treating sickness to prevention. we'll get all those details of that ten-year plan sometime next week. the bbc has been told that sportscar maker lotus is considering ending production in the uk and setting up a new plant in the usa. the move would put 1,300 jobs at risk at its site in norfolk. lotus refused to comment when asked about any plans. it comes after production was temporarily suspended following the introduction of tariffs on cars imported to the us.

cocaine with an estimated street value of almost £100 million has been seized by border force in what's being described as one of the largest drugs busts of the past decade. the drugs were found on a container vessel arriving at london gateway port from panama. it is the sixth largest cocaine seizure since records began. jeff bezos, the founder of amazon and one of the world's richest men, has married the former journalist lauren sanchez in venice. the event is reported to have cost around $46 million and was relocated from the city centre after protests from venetians. the celebrations are expected to last all weekend and has attracted many high-profile celebrities. the bbc says it will not screen live kneecap's set at glastonbury this afternoon. the irish group will be performing despite calls for them to be banned after weeks of

controversy surrounding their political commentary on stage. one of its members has been charged with allegedly displaying a flag in support of the proscribed terrorist organisation, hezbollah, at a gig last november. he denies the charge. the bbc in a statement said the set will be made available on-demand later. headliners tonight include charlie xcx on the other stage, and neil young. the bbc has confirmed it will be streaming his set on the pyramid stage. earlier this week he asked for it not to be shown live. as people are waking up and getting ready and kaiser chiefs already in action there, that

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this is bbc news. the headlines... sir keir starmer says his welfare reforms strike "the right balance" after making concessions to his own backbench mps. speaking to the welsh labour conference, the prime minister said he was committed to making changes. we have a report from the iranian capital, where a major state funeral took place honouring military commanders and nuclear scientists killed by israel during its 12-day war. record numbers are expected at hungary's annual pride march in budapest, despite the prime minister's attempt to ban any material that "propogates" homosexuality. and the second full day of glastonbury festival is well and truly under way, with neil young, doechii